Animosity

"It must have been very beautiful… The first time it rained."

Acrimony glanced up quietly from his book. Taking an intense look at Rancor's face. He made a quick note in a book lying on the table next to him then turned his focus back to the book he was currently reading.

"Did you know that in some places in the world they say that rain drops are the tears of god? Have you ever heard of something so silly?"

Acrimony made no movement to write this time. He instead reached for the silk book mark that he knew he had placed on the table some time earlier that day. He moved his hand around the mounds of paper with expert speed until he had found the lost cloth. He then placed it in the book making a mental note of '457, half way down the page,' and laid the book on the table.

"I mean all through out the bible god only once says that he is remorseful about what he has to do and that was because he had failed in the creation of the first man. God is never sad, and he never cries. It rains a lot here. So if god never cries than how are the rain drops gods tears."

Rancor was talking fast and loud, as though he knew that no one was really listening, even though he wanted them to. He much desired to turn around and see if any one was watching and listening. Though he knew he could not.

"God cries for no one anymore."

Acrimony did not take his time standing up. Knowing that the out burst would occur any second now. He began to move through the piles and piles of books and papers. Slowly making his way towards the huge window that accented the library he currently occupied.

"God. He never cried for them. He… Cries for no one."

Rancor turned his head to the glass window. Feeling the cool glass with his forehead. Then with out warning slamming his hand into it. Acrimony quickened his pace, worried that Rancor might actually be able to break through the glass now. After all, it had been nearly two years since Rancor had actually remembered to feel sad when it rained. He had been only eleven then, and not very strong. Now the years of running and hiding were having an effect on his strength. Rancor, though four years younger than him was now stronger than Acrimony.

"I hate him! I want the rain… I want the rain to be beautiful!"

He hit the glass again. This time cracking it.

"All I ever wanted was for the rain to be beautiful! Why? Why is it only…? Why is it only me who… who can't see that beauty."

He slammed his right fist through the glass this time. The shattered pieces spun through the air. Falling to the cobble street where they shattered into thousands of pieces. Rancor seemed pleased by this sound but looked no less angry.

"Rancor."

It was the first time Acrimony had spoken in nearly a month, there was generally no need to, so his voice was harsh and unclear above the sound of the rain. Even so Rancor immediately dropped his other fist.

"Rancor. Stop this foolishness now. Get your hand away from that broken glass and calm down."

Rancor turned his head slowly to blankly stare about a foot away from where Acrimony was standing. He glared for a moment then haphazardly pulled his still balled fist back through the glass nearly slitting the top of his hand open in doing so.

"Fine then! I'm going somewhere else. Maybe I won't come back this time either!"

Acrimony shot him a pointless glare but did not bother to stop him. He knew this situation very well. Rancor would try to make it to the door of the library however since the door was almost blocked with books he would never make it all the way there. Even when he did he could never actually find the knob. He would then curl up and cry until Acrimony got tired of listening to him and went to find him.

"I swear this time I will make it!"

As Rancor shouted this he ran into a table. He screamed but quickly limped his way around and began walking again. Acrimony just shook his head and walked back to his table. He jotted down another note in his book and retuned to his reading.

It took less time for Rancor to get lost than it usually did Acrimony noted dully as only two hours later he began to hear Rancor crying out. He did not waste any time in finding him and calming him down.

"Shut up. You're giving me a headache. You always feel so sorry for your self. But do you even remember why the rain makes you cry."

Rancor stopped his sobbing when he heard Acrimony's voice.

"Yes I remember why. It was because… It happened… It was raining when it happened. That's why."

Acrimony sighed.

"No. You are wrong. The rain makes you cry because you can not see it. Because you have never seen it and you will never see it. It makes you sad because it reminds you of that. Just like you never saw her, you shall never see her."

Rancor turned his head. As though unwilling to admit that Acrimony's assumption was completely correct. This caused Acrimony to sigh deeply again.

"Do you want to know something else?"

Rancor did not seem to pay any mind to what Acrimony had said but He still knew that he was listening.

"The rain is not god's tears. They are hers. She is crying for you."

Rancor sniffed and turned.

"Why? I don't even remember her!"

It was a forceful demand and Acrimony was silent for a moment. Almost in shock. Then smiled lightly and said.

"Because every time she looks down on earth and on you all she sees are your tears."

Glas followed the nun down the long cobble street slapping her feet loudly in the fresh puddles of water. All along the way she had been wondering why she had gotten such a strange look when she asked for the town library. She was curious to know what was up with the place. All she wanted was a couple of volumes on the indigenous mormolyceia population.

"Milady we are here."

She drew a sharp breath. The place was absolutely colossal. It was a castle it almost seemed, with torrents and high walls enclosing the courtyard. It was also in ruins. A great deal of the stone was crumbling away and half of the roof looked ready to cave in.

"Wow. So this is it. That explains all of the looks that I got when I asked you to take me here."

The nun looked at her oddly. Seeming to know something that she did not.

"Milady? Did no one tell you?"

Glas considered ignoring her inquiry and simply walking into the place but stopped just before she reached the gate.

"What is it?"

She inwardly cursed her curious nature.

"This place acts as home for the towns lost children."

'Now this is interesting' Seras thought to herself.

"Go on. What are lost children? What do you mean 'acts home to'?"

This nun had actually managed to catch her attention now.

"Well about six or seven years ago we had a horrible fire here in town. Many people lost there homes and lives. Including all but the youngest sons in two of the town's most prominent families. One of the boys was about six I believe and the other was eleven."

Glas listened intently. She had read about stuff like this but only in books.

"Well I believe the story goes that the older boy was over at the younger ones house. They were playing when the younger ones mother ran in. She quickly pulled them up and tried to drag them out side. She got hit by a falling beam. They say that the fire got into the younger ones eyes just then and that the last thing he ever saw was his mother burning."

Glas felt instant pain in her gut.

"Many people tried to take them in but they refused to stay anywhere. Now they just hide out in the Library here. No one sees or hears from either of them anymore and we try to leave the building alone so not to disturb them. The name lost boys just means that they are forever lost for they do not have any home to ever return to."

Glas looked up at the glass windows and stone towers.

"What are there names?"

The nun looked shocked for a moment then closed her eyes.

"Truth be told. None of us know. However many of the towns folk, who began to believe that some fowl play might have occurred around the time of the fire, have called them rather terrible ones."

Glas looked down at her feet.

"However most people just call them Rancor and Acrimony. For that is probably what they feel for the world right now. Bitterness and malice."

Glas kept her eyes trained on her feet.

"Not that I would… even blame them."

Glas did not know what to say so instead she turned and began to walk back to the new house she had recently bought down in the center of town. Had she turned around she may have seen the nun knelling down to pick up a few shards of glass that she had noticed on the ground. However even if she had turned around she would not have seen the tears in the nuns eyes.